Football, Kosovo and Castro

While the FA's attempt to, er, internationalise English football may not have gone down well in every corner, the Champions League, whose knockout stage starts tonight, shows that football can help create a "public space" across national borders. So argues Uefa's Jonathan Hill in a web exclusive for Prospect.

Also new on the site today is international law and Yugoslavia expert Ana Stanic's take on the Kosovan declaration of independence. There was no other realistic option than independence, says Stanic, and while Russia and Serbia have no choice but to deal with the new dispensation, there's certainly a lot they can do to make life difficult both for Kosovo and the EU and Nato missions.

Finally, Cuba-watchers following today's surprise announcement by Fidel Castro may like to revisit this piece from our June 2007 issue, in which Bella Thomas returns to Cuba after several years to find that despite Fidel apparently on the verge of death, very little seems to have changed on the island.